The Fort Worth Record and Register (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 294, Ed. 1 Tuesday, August 6, 1907 Page: 2 of 14
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I
Its First Achievement Was tha .
Flourishing Body Organised by
nine
Li
Establishment of Minimum
Ten Men in Rains County,
Texas, in 1902.
Price for Cotton.
fe
eeks the total
WAREHOUSES NEXT
NOW NUMBERS 500,000
1
Avoiding Rocks That Wrecked
Texas Alone This Year Can
Alliance and Grange.
Hold 600,000 Bales.
&
HAS HAD TRIALS OF ITS OWN
4
1
J. F. Lane.
there was a large
pr<
f cl
Gresh-
ol
tn
ipon
had
‘here was something
had to step down and out from his
R
sftion as secreta
and treasurer
ry
►rd i
is of his office to a
the recoi
io was a real farmer, for Gres-
1
of-
vi
In,
li-
sec ret ary
D. Montgomery,
dlk.
/W
because
l
I
dda
Peter Radford.
by,
arki
all the officers elected at the Tex-
ana meetti
I
I
(•Eeae
1
amounta
5
Whir te ebb
(‘ t
It
I
h
"e
r
9
eponderanc of
hanging all of-
a new set from
Dr. Price's Flavorh
perior in strength.
I yanme
‘ Lemon
k Ornge
Impartial Narrative of the Movement
From the Beginning Down to
the Present Day.
sentiment In favor
fleers and putting
top to bottom. Ti
Nonpartisan Activity and Ihuenc in
State Legilation Affecting Agri-
-cultural Affatrs.
i)
(
the farmer
m have It.
gislature
interests
< 082893
. . T. 1
E "
ba
pres
: D. J
Extracts are su-
shness and fine-
COTTON MILLS PERHAPS
1
Peptiron Pills
Ironze the blood, M the nerves and brain. tone
Um stomsch, aid digestion, and give sweet, restfnl
natural sleep, m. or;. Druggists or by mailof ua.
party went to
there was no
REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENTS OF FARMERS’ UNION DURING LAST FIVE YEARS
"L-.
ang i,ah:
‘cs
' •
lg
fa
3 ' .A rZ- sgcody
ham was not a farmer; he was only a
newspaper man who represented him-
self as the friend of the farmer and
was really his friend.
give up
man whe
■ "
na Hti
a ..4
ten yearn the Populist
pieces it died because
At that convention the following
fleers were elected: E. A. Cal’
president; J. A. Wheeler, vice
4
which the Alliance and the Orange
been wrecked. Those organizat
ers‘ Alllance and Orange man. (
am knew full well the shoals
Educational and Co-Operative Union of
America, with Gresham as president
necessity for its existence;
and manager. The other meml
ness of flavor to any flavoring extracts
made in the world, and ladfes of th.
best taste, who are now using them,
find them just as represented. Persons
who desire a delicate and natural flavor
in their cakes, puddings, or any table
delicacy, will obtain it by using
p:PRICEs ‘
Hood’s Pills Kg
man headed the Tarrant County ele-
gatlon to the convention and wrote the
resolution that became a part of the
constitutOh in this particular.
It was also at Waco that a resolution
was adopted making it the fixed policy
of the union to keep a man at Austin
and co-operate with the railroad broth*
erhoods and the Texas State Federation
of Labor in matters affecting the in-
terests of labor in any form in the
state.
It was at Waco that another Im-
portant step was taken in the adoption
of the union label for farmers* prod-
ucts, to be used on all their produets.
President Calvin was instructed to at-
Wem mi <•<(•■ Prtee.
The warntng they care to the farm-
era was heeded, slowiy at first, but
«radually they all came around. Thor
realized that a .rlee of t or « come for
cotton was wholly inadequate, and that
they had as well not try to raise it as
to accept a figure so low and insig-
nifleant The farmers began to hold
their cotton and the speculator could
not get it for 5 centa. He advanced his
figures to 6 cents, but the farmer was
still stubborn and refused to turn it
loose at 6 cents. Then the price began
to soar, and the more it soared the
tighter ths farmer held on to his eta ft
The spegulators oould not get it at any
figure less than 10 rente, and they
were ferrod to come to that figure and
THE FORT WORTH RECORD: TUESDAY MORNING, AUGUST 6, 1907.
from business men or boards of trade
only with the distinct understanding
that such financial help shall be con*
sidered as an unconditional gift and
carrying no rights in the management
of thebusiness. They will have their
own graders and classifters. In the
summer, when the cotton plat has pro-
gressed sufficiently to warrant it, the
tzemmabammamn & 2a 2 mm
toperation, and in such a union to be
able by force of numbers and by acting
1
SHIRTS
M.1.IM 92 2* tie
WHICH ITTI.M 1PHAI
220.24. Let umr.
WHIT. AM SAMY fATTIAM
An# ve everr emimve.
cuiftFova co.
and the speculator will gamble on the
probabilities of what that will be.
If the Farmers* union had never ac-
complished anyth-ne but this one thing
it would have earned the everlasting
gratitude of the Soutn it has not ye
reached the point th negotiacions nor
has it reached that established pool
tion where it absolutely regulates the
price, but it has at least tisw« able
by its concert of 4etion and firmness
to find a level at o cents and above
»w that figure wil
The constitution wag changed at this
convention so that thereafter only
farmers would be eligible to office,
either state or ocal. It was, perhaps:
through the efforts of O. W. Woodman
of Fort Worth more than anybody
else, that this change was brought
about. He put in a great deal of his
time prior to the meeting to that end,
and aroused the membership to the
necessity of taking some such aclon if .
they desired to perpetuate the orga.nl*
zation and make it useful Mr. Wood*
during the sessions of the lei
to look after the farmers* l
Ing agreed to resign and
the - injunction against
not be contested and
4
in number, were: J. B Morris, Point;
Jesse Adams, O. H. Rode a, W. 8. Stsk,
J 8 Turner, T. J. Pound. T. W. Don-
aldson, W. T Cochran, Lee Seamster,
all from Emory, Raines county.
These men immediately went into the
field to organise subordinate unions.
They are known in union circles as the
"Original Ten"’ and bear about the
same relation to the union today, and
are so regarded. ss the early pioneers
do to the history of Texas resham
was the Stephen F. Austin. the other
nine were his pioneer compatriots.
The first charter. which was immedi-
ately secured, might be termed the
declaration of independence of the
farmers. for it has amounted to that,
or will amount to that if their suc-
cesses continue in the future as it has
in the past.
A charter was secured on Aug. 1«.
1903. end the "original ten" were the
charter membera. It is doubtful if the
promoters dreamed that the little In-
stitution they founded that day would
becorne a go?pel to Which in a fet
years half a million men would sub-
scribe. They perhaps, hoped so, but
with S5 many failures of similar organ-
isations lying like wrecks along the
current of recent history, they could
hardly expect this one to escape a simi-
The real first mover in the enter-
prise was Newt Gresham, an old Farm-
as above the
100.009 mark. Every year since that
be a rare occurrence and where the
v above it will be a frequent occur-
rence. It has said to the world with
a firmness that cannot be mistaken
that the farmer cannot live and sell his
cotton under 10 cents and it does not
give It When they
was satisfied and Ie
What did It amount to
Jeff D. Montgomery,
time the union has fixed the price of
cotton and asked its members to abide
by their judgment, and they have not
refused to do ao. The reason that cot-
ton is now bringing worn 10 cents to
13 cents is because of the union.
The Farmers" union has not Seen
without its internal troubles, but the
membership was quick to root out all
inharmonious and deleterious elements,
and has suffered but little from them.
At the Waco convenon in 1905 there
was a general weeding out ar? a gen-
eral cleaning up. There was general
complaint that the organization was
growing listless to the farmers* Inter-
esta
So when the convention met at Waco
i ceive, and the union men of the citles
t purchase these same products for a
t trifle less than they had to pay for-
merly. In other words, the profits of
i the middle man are divided between
I the producers and the consumers, and
all speculation is eliminated.
As an example of the success of
• the actual working of this mutual
arrangement, crates of eggs bearing
i the union label sold direct to the con-
• turner at Houston bring a dollar more
i than do crates wifllout the label; and
; in Fort Worth and Corpus Christi, not-
• ably, like results have been obtained.
It might be stated here that in an
movements for these improvements in
the condition of the working classes
Fort Worth has been the pioneer and
one of the main aggressive factors in
bringing them about, and the state
committee has done well in moving the
I state headquarters to this city. It
I will find a congenial home here.
A Nationni Union.
In January following the Waco con-
vention delegates from every state in
I the South assembled at Texar-
kona for the purpose of or-
ganising a national union or
I council. It was ft question in the
| mins of many of the Texas delegates
whether it was best to have a national
j council composed of the head officials
I of each of the organised states, or a na-
i tional union wherein all the state un-
i ions would be federated. This ques-
4 tion had been mooted for some time
in the local unions, throughout the
I state of Texaa, especially, and when
the delegates assembled at Texarkana
there was not that unanimity that'us-
ually characterised the deliberations
of th. body. The fact is the element
that had been deposed at Waco felt
sore over the result, and the move-
ment for this federal or federated head
was at the instigation of these men
primarily. And they received strong
support from the delegates of ths oth-
er states because of the fact that Tex-
as had for so. long a time, by reason
of having such a large and strong
membership, been dictating very large-
ly all policies of the union, and the
Texas union was the real head of all
unions throughout the South. It was
natural that the delegates of the other
states shuld want to establish a na-
tional head in which Texas would only
have strength according to its mem-
bership and the other states would
have a vote in proportion to their mem-
bership. However, it was agreed even
before the meeting of the Texarkana
convention that such a federated head
was needed and there was really no
it is proposed to take care of all cot-
ton distressed by mortgage and whca
otherwise the farmer would be forced
to turn loose. Arrangements have been flo
made somehow by which they will have
all the money they want to finance the
The Farmers* Educational and Co-
Operative Union of-America. organised
at a little village in Rain eounty.
Texas, less than five years ago, has
frown from a mere idea in the minds
bt ten men into one of the ost useful,
not to say one of the most powerful,
organisations in the country.
From ten men who brought ft Into
existence in August. 1902. it has grown
to a membership of half a million in
1907—500,000 enthusiastic tillers of the
soil scattered everywhere throughout
the South, from where the ocean kisr,
the shores of the Old Dominion state to
where the Rio Grande marks the lim-
its of American territory in the South-
west.
In the early days of August. 1902,
while the corn was awaiting the har-
vester in. the field and the cotton was
opening its first bolls; in that interim
of the farmer's Ufa between the labor
of planting and plowing, and the reap-
ing of the fruits of his toll, ten earnest
men, who had seen their products dis-
counte and the money they brought
in the markets growing less every year
or at least remaining stationary in
priee, while they saw the price of da-
bor constantly advancing and the prices
Of all other products going steadily up,
mot at the little town of Point, in
Rams county. Texas. and effected an
organization which they called the
Farmers' Educational and Co-Operative
unton.
dent; B F. Chapman,
Neill, state lecturer; J.
organiser.
propose to part with it under that fig-
i ure even if it has to carry it in its
I own hands from one season to another.
Cottos Seed, Too.
The union also fixes ths minimum
price at which cotton seed shall be
sold. Last year It named 115 a ton as
i the minimum figure and the farmeg
was advised to hold his seed until he
i received it or to uso it for fertiliser
when he could not get it. In order to
get the most out of the seed possible,
farmers were advised everywhere at
। points where it would be at all profit-
able to build oil mills of their own.
, County unions were directed to build
mills.
Another Interesting feature of the
, work undertaken by the Farmers’ un-
ion of Texas is the establishment of
, cotton schools. In July, 1909. the
first of these educational institutions
। was opened at Dallas. The purpose
was to Instruct members of the union
in the art of grading and classing cot-
ton. It is believed bv the union that
there is a great loss to the producer
on account of improper grading. They
believe that much cotton is sold as
middling or under that is really above
that in grade. This Is especially true
In Texas where the clfmate is dry and
where most of ths cotton is a little
better than middling But while any
and all farmers who wish to know for
their satisfaction and benefit what the
class of their cotton is, are admitted
to these schools Yet they were es-
tablished primarily for the purpose of
preparing men for positions as grad-
ers in the warehouses that are spring-
ing up over the state. It illustrates
the thorough and practical methods of
the union and is an indication that
they mean to become sole proprietors
of their own business. It is the sure
rpad to success. It is the taking care
Q1thelittle things, stopping the leaks,
that shows the businesslike manage-
ment of the union. Every county that
grows any oonsiderable amount of the
fleecy staple Is expected to send one
or more students to these schools, and
they go as representatives of the local
unon:S-,A saving, small in the ind-
yldualb ! but very great in the ag-
gresat ’ has been made, sPe the orP.
cials, or the union believe, by the farm- .
ere learning to discriminate between
the.E radese A school of this kind is
now being taught In Houston.
Reduetion in fare.
Another saving has been accom-
plished in the interest of the cotton
raiser which1wiji amount to a condid
erable sum this reason and in the fu-
ture., This was one of the most bene,
ttcigel results of Mr Calvin’s conference
with the sinners at Vienna. it is
this: On every bale of cotton shipped
to foreign ports an arbitrary reduc.
ton of 6 per cent has heretofore been
deducted for the weight of the lagging
and.ties. That would make a deductlon
or thirty pounds on erery 3o9-pound
t ale. Mr. Calvin an! his chengues
sucseeded in convincing the spinners
thin thU was a third too much, and
< 2utice to the fa'iuer, .W ho is entitled
to al! there is In his col tom the spin-
ners agreed to reduce the Ynre tc 4
per cent. At I) cents a pound, this
living amounts to a dollar a pale or
on a 1 2,000,000-hale crop, to te enor-
mous sum of $12,070050 t yer In
this item which has been taken from
the loss column of the farmers’ ledger
the officers of the unton hive n,,Sin
shown their excilant basine-s jojg-
ment.
With a coat'nsti o: uUa tusi.
ness policy, wfih th far me s lining
up in a determinevi phalanx from Vir-
ginia to Texas for their own protec-
tion and for the promotion of their in-
terests, there is a brighter day dawn-
ing for agriculture. From a condition
of f.blect hopelessness in the hands of
men who fattened upon their supine
Mdifference, to an aggressve, wide-
awake and progressive attitude, the
farmer has come within the last few
years, by realizing that in the past he
has been blowing bubbles while seeK-
ing his own redemption through poli-
tics, and that his only chance of suc-
cess lies in organisation along business
lines in a practical way, as all other
trades and professions are fostered and
advanced. He has at last found the
true way to his own salvation, and the
whole South marvels at the industrial
miracles he is performing He is en-
nobling his calling and making it'not
only honorable but profitable. He is
planting splendid homes with modern
conveniences in the midst of his wav-
ing fields. He is mixing education
with his seeds and has made his skies
rosy with promise where they have
long bekn dull with despondency. He
has done it, too. alone and unaided
against great odds, and he has done it
by discarding theories for practical
methods, by driving from his temples
the politicians who had fleeced him
wih hypocritical pretenses and led
hirr into ways of error.
Publie Questions.
But the union, while working along
practical lines that deal with the
marketing of products, has not entirely
kept aloof from politics. It is a hard
matter. It would seem, for farmors
organisations to know just how faf
thy should go in -politics to best pro*
it was a mistake, launched originally
with good intentions, but upon erro-
neous lines.
It was plain the farmers had made
a mistake in entering the political
arena to remedy their wrongs. Every-
body saw the error, and none more
clearly than did Newt Gresham. For
six long years he studied upon schemes
for the solution of the difficulty. At
last in the spring of 1992 he became
convinced of the fact that the farmers
could be organized along lines of ag-
ricultural education and of mutual co-
reason, and because of a lack of a sys-
tem to hold it.
It was difficulties such as this that
brought ebout the necessity for the
establishment of the warehouse system
which is at present the great absorb-
ing question before the union. Prac-
tically nothing was done toward the
erection of warehouses until last year;
but at the Dallas meeting a plan was
set on foot for the building of ware-
houses all over the state and for their
federation into a general house which
has been established at Houston. Un-
der an agreement with the business
men of Houston, acting through W. D.
Cleveland, John II. Kirby and others,
the state union was given charge of
what was known as tn® Inman press
there, the rental being paid by the
business men of Houston and not cost-
ing the union a cent.
The warehouse system, which the
union has now in process of working
out. is to establish these houses in
every county, with one central ware-
house at the county seat and others at
places where there is sufficient cotton
to warrant it. The local unions pro-
pose to build them with their own capi-
tal. not permitting anyone but a union
man to have stock in them, and to in-
terest as many union men in them as
possible, making th® shares very small
to that end. They prepose lo manage
them without any help from merchants
or others so that they shall be con-
ducted strictly in the interest of tha
farmers. They will receive assistance
should he mad® perpetual.
This was don®, and at the conven-
tion at Dallas in August. HOC, all was
harmonious. A national union was
formed there, with Charles Barrett, a
farmer of Georgia, as president and
Ben Griffin of Arkansas as secretary.
The annual dues of the organization
when ft was in the nands of private
parties and before it became a state
affair were CO cents a year, but at th®
Waco meeting the dues were increased
to 80 cents, the initiation fee remain-
ing 81 from the first to th® present
time Under the -first organisation the
working officers—that is. the organ!-
ers and lecturers—received a commis-
sion on all they collected for work
done This was changed at the Fort
Worth meeting, so that all officers re-
ceived a salary and the surplus went
into the treasury.
The securing of co-operation of the
Farmers’ union with the trades unions
was brought about largely through the
effort®- of C. W. Woodman of Fort
Worth, who was also connected In an
official capacity with the trades un-
ions Walton Peteet also took an ac-
agreed that
them should
the South was sold at 10 cents, when
wtthgut an organisation that all but
forced the farmer to hold his cotton it
would have gone at half that vriee.
It amounted to a saving to ths people
of the cotton growing statee of $20
a bale, or $160,000,000.
This was a supreme test of the loy-
alty of the farmers to the organisa-
tion. and the results were so encourag-
ing that the membership besun vo
climb by leaps and bounds, and in a
imbued with the idea that the farmer
was forced to organise in self-defense,
but that he should organise with one
purpose only, and that to get the real
value of his products. Gresham had
been a Populist, too—that was a farm-
ers* movement which had its real in-
ception and inciting cause in the low
price of farm products. The Popultst
party was a great protest, from the
agricultural classes against the ine-
quality of conditions and their own
impoverished condition. They did not
know how else to proceed
Pollt lea l Ambitionn,
Politicians took advantage of the
situation to make them believe the
time was ripe for a political revou-
tion, that their trouble was political
and their salvation would come !f it
came at all in a reversal of political
eonditions. The result was that the
farmers who went into L---s organisa-
tion found the two old politloal par-
ties arrayed against them, and in a
fight that continued over a period of
system. They have perfected arrange-
ments already for loaning about $35 a
bale on all cotton stored in the ware-
houses. and th® farmer can take this
money and pay off his mortgage and
thus be enabled to hold it for the mini-
mum figure fixed by the union.
Th® state convention at Dallas adopt-
•d the following resolution:
“That we believe it advisable for this
convention to devise some system of
marketing cotton. th® manner of which
shall be so plain and definite that each
ad every member of the Farmers
union will know at all times ths per-
tleular manner in which his cotton
shall be place on th® market; and in
so doing, it is our opinion that it should
be delivered to th® spinner, or th® spin-
ners agent, at local accessible interior
points, at the price agreed upon by th®
growers and spinners, and to this point
we suggest that our state secretary be
fully informed weekly through the
cotton season, exactly how many bales
of cotton are held by the members, and
keep him informed also of all sales
mad®, in order that our union may be
in poaltion at all times, through its
head offleials. to know what the order
is doing in the way of marketing cot-
ton.
"We believe, further, that in mak-
ing the price of cotton, the same can
be had by th® eftorts of the state
executive oommittee negotiating direct-
ly with the «pinners, or spinners*
agents; and we believe the executive
committee should be clothed with au-
thority to negotiate sales of cotton
for the members, ever mindful of th®
fact that they cannot, under any cir-
cumstances, effect a sals for less than
the minimum priee, and sell only cot-
ton warehoused, tn order that deliv-
erlee may be made without fall; and
when so made the spinners, or spin-
ners* agent, shall visit, class, weiga
and pay for cotton at the warehouse,
obviating the necessity of shipping,
and requiring the seller to submit to
destination weights ad grades."
Controlins Frier.
President Calvin is authority for tbs
statement that Texan will have a stor-
age capacity for 600,000 bales this fall
and that with the warehouses full the
farmer will be easily enabled to con-
trol the price of cotton. There will be
fully 300 warehouses by the time the
cotton season is open and in full blast,
and President Calvin is of the opinion
that the plan will prove so successful
and effective that the number will be
easily increased to 500 next year. And
then he looks for ths spinner to go
around the middle man altogether and
come direct to the warehouses for
his supplies.
Mr. Calvin is said to thoroughly be-
lleve in the inadequacy of the crop to
meet the demand. He estimates this
year’s crop at 12.900.009 bales or less,
while he figures that no Ises than
14.090.009 are needed for consumption.
The situation, he thinks, warrants the
farmers in holding for 15 cents, and
he will advocate fixing that figure this
year as the minimum ’With Texas
holding «00.900 bales.” he says, "even
if all the other states do not hold but
little, what Texas will hold will be
sufficient to insure getting 15 cents
for the bulk of th® otton."
Mr. Calvin attended the International
live part in bringing about this co-op-
eration Ths trades unions had for
years maintained a joint legislative
board at Austin during the sessions of
the legislature. The tentalve agree-
ment these men effected was indorsee
by the executive committee of the
state Farmers union, and when the
convention met at Waco was ratifled
and made perpetual by that body.
The last regular annual convention
held by the stat® union was at Dallas
in August, 1909. mentioned above. At
that meeting the old officers of the
Superior
in Strength
had sought to act as guardians for the
farmer in everything he did and to that
end established co-operative stores in
which the farmers took stock. The pur-
pose was to render the farmer inde-
pendent of everybody else. The theory
was that the middleman should be
knoc ked out and the farmers saved the
expense of all nermediaries The
plan, however, proved to be utopian.
Farmers were independent ehough to
buy where they pleased, and besides,
these stores got into incompetet hands.
And the whole scheme failed end ex-
ploded like a MlssUs!ppi bubble.
Gresham had seen that the great
mistake the farmer had made was in
trying to run any business but his
own. He went to work thoroughly
The seeond held at Fort Worth aaw
quite a number of changes The char-
ter was purchased from the original
ten incorporators, th® institution be-
came what It should always have been
an organisation in which all the farm-
ers of the slate and in other states who
cared to affiliate with it were stock-
holders, deriving all the benefits which
sprung from it; in fact it became a
public concern. It was at this conven-
tion. too, that autonomy was granted
to Arkansas, .Igdfan Territory and
Oklahoma, thes territories and state
having such numerous membership as
to warrant the granting of autonomy. ■
l p to this time the Farmers’ union
had been strictly a Texas affair, and
if any other state cared to adopt the’
plan, the local unions there became •
subsidiary to the Texas State union !
Th® headquarters of the whole Unit-?
ed States was in Texas. The union ;
had been growing rapidly. In Arkan- ■
sas and the two Indian territories espe- i
daily it had spread and was increasing
in numbers fast. It had also taken
root in the states across the Missis- >
sippi, and ths farmers there were tak- f
ing an active Interest in It Provisions
were made at this convention so that
any state after .securing a certain
number of members could have au-
tonomy. that is, their own government
and separate organizatfon.
It was after the Mineola convention
when a minimur price for cotton waa
first fixed: when the first attempt at
holding for that price was made. The
success of the attempt was th® real
hesinning of the growth of th® union.
The farmers saw that the organization
had a practical purpose and that that
purpose was in a fair way to be at-
tained.. The.union fn the summer of
1904 established a minimum price of 10
cents for the cotton that season, and'
advertised it as extensively as pos-
sible but it was & new and novel thing
for ths farmers and at first they did
not hold their cotton as they should,
and as a result ths price dropped down
to 5 and 9 cents. It looked rather
squally for the new organization; if
they lost in this their first fight it
would have a depressing effect upon
the movement all over the South.
Theunlon realized the critical situa-
tion of things and made heroic efforts
to stay th® downward tendency of th®
staple. A special meeting of the ex-
ecut Ive committee was called and hun-
dreds of telegrams were sent all over
th® cotton growing states urgin# the
farmers to stop selling and assuring
them that th® minimum figure-of 10
cents could be secured If the farmer*
would only stand together it was
shown that the world's supply of the
raw material even when it had been
Increased with that year’s crop, could
not.Posslbly be equal to the demand.
and4 U* that was the case the price
should not be fixed at a figure lower
than 10 cento it was a hard fight, but
much involved; not only a great sav-
ink in that year"s crop tout the union
looked upon it as a fight for the fu-
ture interest of th farmer, and for its
pwn. exlstence. they won In that
right tt would be easier for them to
malntaln, the organization in ths fu-
ture. easier for them to fix a figure at
which the farmer would sell and easier
for him to stand by it when fixed. In
other words the very life of the new
orsanization. was at stake. And the
of tic ers in charge fought manfully for
their rights and for what they believed
to be for the best interests of the farm-
Polities Forbidden.
The charter contained one saving
clause that has been the primary cause
of its avoidng the rocks, and will be the
cause of its ultimate and continuing
success, unices it be abolished or vio-
lated. That was a provision that poli-
tics should not be injected into the
movement in any form. Year after year
eInce that time this provision has been I
reaffirmed by various conventions un-
til it has become a fixed policy. The
union, however., does not construe the
clause as an inhibition against their
making demands for the passage of
laws friendly to the farmer as a class,
and they have taken part in politics to
that extent.
Strangely enough this original un-
ion was a private corporation. The
promoters charged an initiation fee of
31 from each member of the newly or-
ganized unions and annual dues of 90 >
cents each; all of which went into the
pockets of the promoters after paying i
expensea It is said to have been from!
the start a good paying proposition. 11
There was nothing wrong about the -1
plan; its purpose was a wholesome one, I
the farmers acquiesced in it and the
fact that the headquarters was a pri-
vate affair did not at first concern th® i
members?*p. Lecturers were employ- <
ed and sent Into the field to work tt |
up. A business agency was added and ।
this auxiliary department handled a i
g0od deal of the produce of the farmers :
and enabled them in many localities
to establish minimum prices on such
things as vegetables and fruits, and i
for educating cotton growers on prac- 1
tlcally the same lines as those now in 1
vogue.
Eighteen months after the charter
was obtained by the ten men whose (
names are given above, the first con- <
vention was held in Mineola in Feb- ।
ruary, 1994. In the meantime the ten <
men acting as trustees managed the
affairs of the organisation ana when i
the time set for the first convention ।
arrived there wers nearly 70000 mem- i
bers enrolled.
FIrst Convention.
At this convention a constitution was I
regularly adopted and the following 1
officers were elected for the year: i
President. N. C. Murray Kingston; I
vice president. J. B. Morris; secretary- <
treasurer, Newt Gresham. Point; lec-- i
turer. C- M Compton, Pittsburg; or-
ganiser. Jeff D Montgomery, Gordon; i
executive committee. 6. P Pyl®. Mtn- i
eola: W T. Loudermilk.. Downing; J. .
T. Garner. Winfield: Virgil Rodgers, <
Henerson; A. M. Col wick, Greenville.
The charter, however, was left by i
this convention with the original ten.
and with the exception of the adop-
tion of a constitution but little was
done
Since the Mineola convention six oth-
ers have been held, the second and
third in Fort Worth, the fourth in 1
Waco, and the fifth and sixth in Dal- I
las ।
Uis: Twe-thirda of thlentire crop
conference of spinners at Vienna last
May and succeeded in impressing them
with the fact that the Farmers’ union
i proposed to deal fairly and with abso-
lute honesty with them in every re-
spect if they would only do their buy-
ing direct from the union. He suc-
ceeded, too. It is believed, though this
feature of his conference with them is
a secret so far, in perfecting arrange-
ments, or at least in initiating arrange-
ments whereby the spinner will nego-
tiate with the union in making pur-
chases of cotton. It is believed that
he has arranged to have a business
agent of the union at Liverpool to
‘facilitate negotiations. Before such ar-
rangements could be effected Mr. Calvin
had to impress th® manufacturers with
the idea that the union would not be
overbearing or wild in fixing the mini-
mum figures, and that they would be
willing to accept prices that were war-
rantede the actual conditions.
Conference with Spinners.
At the Vienna conferenee it was gen-,
orally agreed that th® cotton trade was
suffaring from great abuses resulting
•from lack of co-operatfon btween
। the agricultural and manufacturing
branches of the industry. The
I spinner and grower had been accus-
tomed to look upon each other as ene-
mles. But this illusion has been dis-
pelled by th® two conferences that have
been held jointly by the representatives
of those branches. Ths first conference
of that kind ever held convened at
Washington in May, 1904. And that is
remarkable; remarkable that the pro-
ducer of the world's greatest and most
useful fabric material, and the manu-
facturers who convert it into the fin-
ished product, should never untll one
year ago, have com® together for the
purpose of discussing the matters of
interest to both an4 egpecially with
respect to the sale and purchase of
the stuff. The manufacturer has been
content to let the commission man do
the buying and the producer has been
satisfied with whatever the commission
man and speculator chose to give him.
Gamblers in future® have used the
great staple of the South as chips in
their games of chance, and there has
been suffering in millions of homes be-
cause the farmer has been so generous
as to permit his birthright to be bar-
tered on the boards of the bucket shops,
and the manufacturer, too. in late years
has felt at times, the demoralising ef-
fects of the fluctuations of the boards
of chance.
Mr. Calvin and his colleagues, who
represented the southern farmer at
Vienna and Washington, have estab-
lshed an entente cordial® with ue
spinner whereby the wav is opened for
a direct sale without the mischievous
interference of the speculator. They
have not succeeded and probably w1ll
never succeed in depriving the specu-
lator of hie occupation, but they have
in a large measure taken away from
him th® ‘power to fix and control the
price of cotton. Hereafter the price
will be fixed by the buyer and seller.
of a fight made in the convention, but
it did not amount to much, for the local
unions over th® state had already in-
structed their delegates to vote for a
new deal all around. On® of the chief
causes for this radical action was the
fact that some of the leading ofGcers
were not farmers. There was a loud
and continued cry for a Farmers’ union
for farmers only and. by rarters oniy.
And so the old set went down; some
of them were the men who had organ-
ized th® union, who fathered It and
started it on Its career. Even Greeham
himself, who had first conceived the
Farmers’ union idea and given it shape,
and who was the real founder of it.
in concert to get control of the market
and get reasonable prices.
He saw that the firmer sold prac-
tically all his cotton in the early fall
months, that the price usually went
down ewhen this big movement was
ton. and then later when the crop was
• It in ths hands of the speculator that
it began to rise; that it always rose
after the producer had parted with it.
He also sav that most farmers mort-
gaged thefr" cotton in'the sprfng and
that the notes were payable In October;
that the merchant who held the mort-
gage had to have his money then in
order to meet his own obligations that
were timed to mature in the fall
With the idea of ultimately bringing
•bout conditions that would free the
producer from slavery to these customs,
Gresham drew up a /•institution and a
Statement of principles for an organ-
ization that he hoped would solve the
difficulty and make the farmer of the
South Independent of the financial
world. Pity it is that he did not live
to see the full extent of the institution
he founded, the extent to which it has
grown at this time and the wonderful
results it ha® accomplished.
The First Union.
Gresham convinced a few farmer® of
Ralns county of th® feasibillty of hU
plan® and they handed together into
the flrot organisation of the Farmers’
serious question about the establish-
ment of this national head. The main
trouble arose in the eonventfon over
the fact that the delegates from the
Texas unions were Instructed to vote
for no man for office of the now body
unless he was an actual farmer. That
had been the cause of the trouble in
the Waco convention, and the men who
were ousted there were seeking by
this move to reinstate themselves la
another way into office. This was the
cause of the dissensions that made the ;
Texarkana me^hg notd in the un-1
ion's history.
The other state® combined against ,
Texas and elected O. P. Pyle, a new-
paper man of Mineola. Toxas, as pres-
ident of the new national organization.
A constitution WAS adopted at this
convention for the national union I
formed there, and all arrangements,
• were made for the national head to [
i tab® up th® work of organizing the
j entire South.
Hut there was so much dissatisfac-
I tion in Texas over the actual farmer
proposition failing to carry in the con-
vention and because it was in direct
hostility to their previously declared
policy along that !ln® that a conven-
tion was called for Dallas (which, by
the way, had become the headquarters
of the national union), to which dole*
gate® from all parts of Texas were
sent to take action on the Texarkana
movement.
Family Row.
In the meantime, however, the offi-
cer® who had been elected at Tex-
arkana had applied for and secured a
charter from the state of Texas, giv-
ing them the right to the use of the
name of National Farmers’ Union and
Educational and Co-Operative Union
of America.
At the Dallas convention the action
of the TexarKana meeting was repu-
diated. This meeting was held in
March, 1905. After the repudiation
th® convention adjourned to meet
again a few months later in regular
annual session. In the medntime an
injunction was sued out in the courts,
seeking to enjoin the officers of the
national union from using the name
they had secured a chatter for and
from taking any action thereunder.
But before the annual convention was
held a compromise was effected where-
organzation were re-elected and the
following executive qommfttee named:
F. w. Davis. W. T. LoudeTmUk, Peter
Radford, J. . Luce and J. E, Bond. A.
A. O’Keefe was selected as business
' agent. The state headquarters wars
4 continued at Dallas.
At this meeting all sore places were
salved over, and harmony, which had
been a missing feature for some, tme
wag restored, and altogether matters
. were placed upon a better footing than
they had been at any time before, pres-
ident Calvin, in his official address,
stated that the union had become the
greatest agricultural organisation in
. the world, and that, too, in the face
of the fact that it had had trouble®
! and reverses enough to have utterly
i destroyed an organisation composed of
map of less determination than they
had manffested. He said: "We have
1 had to overcome the oppositlcn of
I those who looked upon the farmer as
being a piece of merchandise to be
bought and sold at will. We have
caught upon our spotless shield the
poisoned arrows of prejudice and slan-
der; but despite those moot terrible
obstacles the organization came forth
Prom the fiery ordeal to mount to still
higher height® until today oar accom-
plishments command the respect and
admiration of the civilized world."
Warehouse System.
At the regular meeting at Waco in
August. 1905, a resolution was passed
fixing the price of cotton at 19 cents
a pound at Interior points for that sea-
son’s crop. Sept. 1 the condition of the
crop had so changed that the executive
committee decided that 19 cents was
too low. and they changed the price
recommended by the convention to 11
centa A circular was sent put to that
effect asking all farmers to hold for
that figure. A great majority of the
members stood fIrm upon this request,
but many were forced to sell on ac-
count of the fact that they were not
prepared to hold. There was much
distressed cotton—under mortgage—
that had to be turned loose for that
tend the national meeting of the Amer-
Iran Federation of Labor at Pittsburg,
and to ask for "its Indorsement and for
a working agreement whereby the
union farmers would patronize the
union label of the eity workmen, and
the unionmen of the cities would pat-
ronize the labels of the union farm-
ers. In accordance with this resolution
and the instruction oL the convention.
Mr. Calvin attended the next national
meeting of the American Federation of
Labor and had no difficulty in get-
ting them to agree to the proposed
plan of reciprocity. As a result there
are bureaus now established in many
cities with business agents of the farm-
ers in charge, and the farmers are en-
abled in this way to sell their prod-
ucte for more than they formerly re-
conditions justify, and will issue circu-
lar letters to the unions throughout th®
South asking all members to hold their
cotton until they receive the price fixed
officially, if they are unable to re-
ceive the price named, the members will
store their cotton in these warehouses
until they get it. The selling of the
cotton will then be made in bulk
through the Houston general house. It
is hoped by thus selling in large lots at
a time, and by having the cotton al-
ready graded carefully and correctly,
they will be able to more readily get
the price desired.
Efforts are being made to arrange di-
rectly with the spinners for the sale
of cotton to them, and thus avoid
the speculator altogether. This is the
great desire of the uon. They have
an idea that they can. by doing away
with the speculator, get a better price
than thsy could otherwise. They would,
if they could, drive the speculator en-
tirely from the field, and if their plans
carry, they may succeed in doing so.
Three Hlundred Houses.
Already so far this year there have
been Bome 300 warehouses built at
various points in Texas and in cours
of erection. And when the system is
complete it will mean, In the words of
President Calvin. "That the time will
come when the farmer will place his
cotton in the warehouse, take his re-
ceipts and meet his obligations with
them, close the door, turn ths key, and
say to the manufacturer, if you want
to spin my cotton, you must pay a just
and equitable price for it. It means
that the farmer will come into that in-
dependence of which so much has been
said, and which he never can enjoy so
long as he is compelled to sell hie prod-
ucts on the auction block."
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The Fort Worth Record and Register (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 294, Ed. 1 Tuesday, August 6, 1907, newspaper, August 6, 1907; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1498842/m1/2/: accessed July 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .